1-01 A boy without talent
I grew up in a cabin with my mother, tilling the fields.
My father, who was very weak, died when I was very young, and for a while our life was peaceful, but when I was twelve years old, my mother also fell ill.
I did my best to take care of her, but she grew weaker and weaker, and one day.
"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything for you. At least, live the life you want.
She handed me a leather bag with some money in it.
Those were my mother's last words.
The next morning, my mother was cold.
And I was left alone.
I finished building my mother's grave next to my father's and decided to leave the mountain and go to the city.
I'm sure I can live as I am now.
This is a rural area where you can't even call a doctor, but there are good fields and livestock.
In the forest, there are plenty of berries to eat and prey like wild rabbits.
There is no need to worry about food.
But...
I've decided to leave my familiar little home.
There was something I really wanted to do.
I wanted to be an adventurer.
An adventurer like the heroes my father had told me about when I was little.
With my friends, I defeated a giant dragon... obtained a treasure, and challenged further adventures.
He learns magic from an old sorcerer, breaks a curse on the forest, and obtains an elixir from the King of Spirits that heals all diseases.
My father would tell me over and over again about these exciting adventures.
The elixir that heals all diseases.
If such a thing really existed, my father and mother might not have died. That's what I imagined.
But there's no guarantee it actually exists.
Maybe it was all just a story my father made up to entertain me when I was young.
I wanted to find out.
I wanted to find out how much of my father's story was true and how much was a fairy tale.
No, maybe the truth didn't really matter.
I was simply longing to be a character in a story.
The "hero" of the stories my father told.
I wanted to be the hero of the story my father told me, the one who swung his sword for his friends, for the weak, no matter what the odds, and in the end always won and brought the story to a happy ending.
I wanted to be like that.
I simply couldn't suppress my longing to be such a hero.
So I descended the mountain for a few days and went to the Adventurer's Guild in the city.
I had heard that if I went there, I could become an adventurer.
It was easy to reach the guild building.
I asked a guard where it was, and he showed me right away.
Yes, it was easy to get there.
But when I entered the adventurer's guild, a strong man came out and said.
This is no place for a child. Go home.
When I went home, I didn't have a family anymore.
I managed to explain my situation to him.
I managed to explain my situation, and he said, "Oh, you're parentless. ...... No wonder. If that's the case, do you want to go to a training school for your profession (class)? There's no precedent for a child like you to go there. ...... If you want to, I'll take care of it.
The uncle scratched his head and began to talk about it.
In the event that you're not sure what to do, you can always ask your doctor.
This was decided by law by the current king in order to prevent fatal accidents among new adventurers.
It is also said that anyone can take it for free.
Not only that, but you are guaranteed food, clothing, and shelter for the duration of the program.
All the expenses will be paid out of the taxpayers' money.
This is something I could never have hoped for.
Of course, I jumped at the chance.
"If you really want to be an adventurer, go to the training school and learn whatever skills you can first.
I didn't know what he was talking about at the time, but that's what the guild official said.
【Skill】.
This was the first time I learned of its existence.
It is said to be a sign of strength and competence in the world.
According to the uncle of the guild, every person has one or two outstanding [skill] talents.
The training school is there to identify the talents of those [skills].
In this country, there are training schools for the six basic professions (classes).
It is said that anyone can receive training in any profession (class) of their choice if they wish, and once they have trained, they can quickly find out what kind of [skill] they have and what kind of profession (class) they are suited for.
So I decided to follow the advice of my uncle at the adventurer's guild and take some training.
I thanked the man at the guild's reception desk for showing me where to go, and I headed straight for the training center for my profession (class).
Swordsman.
It's a job I've always wanted.
The heroes of my favorite adventure stories used to reap a dragon as big as a mountain with a single swing of their sword.
I've always wanted to be like that one day.
I know it's just a story, but maybe I can be like him.
No, I'll definitely become like that.
That's why I knocked on the door of the training center.
But...
After a few months of training under the guidance of my instructor.
I had no talent with a sword.
Hopelessly so.
A swordsman's role is to attack.
In other words, skills suitable for attack are required above all else.
However, even though I trained to the limit of my training period, I never developed any skills that were effective in attacking.
On the contrary, I could not acquire any skills that I could have acquired through normal training.
The training period was almost over, and I couldn't give up, so I asked my instructor to extend the training period.
But he told me, "If you just swing a sword without any skills, you will be of no use to your friends as a swordsman. You're just wasting your time." I was disappointed, but decided to train for the next job (class).
If I can't become a swordsman, then...
The next place I went was the Warrior training school.
Warrior] is a profession in which you put your body on the line to shield your friends (party) and use all kinds of weapons to be active on the front line.
This is not as good as a swordsman, but it is close to the image I had in my mind of an adventurer.
It seems I don't have any talent with a sword.
Then it doesn't have to be a sword.
I want to be strong enough to live as an adventurer, whatever that means.
And so I entered a warrior training center and trained for months, coughing up blood, with other strong adults.
But I struggled to keep up with the training, and by the end of the training period, what I finally developed was a very basic skill that anyone can use, just a slight increase in physical ability.
I was told that I would not be recognized as a full-fledged Warrior.
Apparently, I didn't have the talent to be a warrior.
The training instructor was kind enough to help me, but he said, "If you continue like this, you will soon lose your life," and advised me to find another profession.
I was even more depressed, but I kept my hope alive and entered a training school to get a different job.
The next place I went was a training school for hunters.
I thought that if I couldn't get a job as a melee fighter, then fighting with a bow wouldn't be so bad.
Besides, I had some experience in the mountains when it came to hunting.
I can set traps and throw stones to drop birds.
So I thought I might have a chance, so I started training.
But that didn't work either.
No matter how hard I tried, I could only develop [stone throwing], a skill that anyone could learn, even a child could use.
On the contrary, the training period ended without me being able to even handle a bow properly.
According to the instructor, I was "hopelessly lacking in the sense of handling delicate tools.
After I left the hunting school, I was very depressed.
It seemed that I couldn't be the hero of the adventure story I had imagined.
I have no aptitude for a career in which I have to carry a weapon and fight with gusto.
Then I decided to change my mind with .......
Anything is fine, as long as you can keep up with the adventure.
I've decided that I don't need to be the hero, but I can be useful as an assistant.
I don't care if I don't look like a hero in an adventure story.
I'll do whatever it takes.
And so, half desperate, I entered the training school for the [Thief] profession.
With a faint hope that I might be able to make a difference here.
But in the end, I was wrong.
In the end, the only skill I developed was the ability to reduce the sound of footsteps.
The man in charge of the training, a thief, said.
He said, "A scout who can't even open a trapped treasure chest and doesn't have any sense of smell is nothing to talk about. I was told in no uncertain terms that I had no talent at all and that I should find another job.
I thought this was my last hope, so I persisted, but in the end I was kicked out.
That was really the last thing.
The only thing I thought I could do.
The only thing left was the magic profession.
But I had given up on that when I first heard about it from the guild's uncle.
He said that magic takes shape only when the nature of one's natural magical power (mana), a vast amount of knowledge, and diligent training all come together.
Becoming a magician is not an easy task.
It is said to be much more difficult than other professions such as swordsman and warrior.
That's why I didn't think it was an option.
But I have to do it.
There's no other way for me to go.
I've decided to enter the world of magic, a world I've never seen before, a world I've only heard about in fairy tales.
I know it's reckless.
But maybe there is a hidden talent.
With that in mind, I knocked on the door of a [magician] training school.
As a result...
I couldn't do anything about it.
It was completely useless.
When I knocked on the door of the training school, the old magician who showed up said, "Well, just give it a try," and let me in, but in the end, all I acquired was the skill to light a candle at the tip of my finger.
This is a very rudimentary skill that even the least talented person can learn after three days of instruction, and I spent the entire training period just learning it.
In a word, I had no magical talent at all.
The old sorcerer who taught me said
The old wizard who taught me said with a curious look on his face, "It's rare for a person to have so little talent in magic.
The old sorcerer who taught me looked at me with interest, but in the end he said.
"This is no place for you. You should look for another way.
He gently told me.
I couldn't say anything else, and that day I gave up on leaving the training school and becoming a sorcerer.
And then...
There was only one job left to try at the Adventurer's Guild.
The even more reckless magic profession is the [Cleric] profession (class).
A monk is no more than a sorcerer, and not everyone can become one.
Healing is an occupation for those who have earned the grace of the gods by nature, and after a long period of training from an early age.
I was told by an uncle in the guild, "You can't become a [cleric] even if you want to.
I agreed with him.
But...
I couldn't become a swordsman, a warrior, a hunter, a sorcerer, or even a thief.
There was no other hope.
That's why I went to the training school to try my last hope of becoming a cleric.
What I arrived at was a large, massive stone temple.
When I knocked on the gate, a tall priest came out from inside, and when I explained what I wanted to do, he told me in no uncertain terms, "You can't do it if you don't have any background.
I knew that.
But I didn't want to give up.
I told the priests that I would not move an inch from the gate until I was allowed to train, and I did so.
After a day, two days, and then a third day, the priest finally gave in and allowed me to learn from him.
That's how I ended up training as a monk.
However, after a full and bloody training period, I acquired [Low Heal], a skill that is an even worse version of [Heal], the lowest level spell for monks. As a monk, it is a skill that does not matter if you have it or not. That's all I got after a lot of effort.
In other words, it proved that I had no talent here either.
My training instructor, a priest, consoled me by saying, "It's amazing that you can make it this far without a childhood blessing," but other trainees my age had acquired many more amazing skills, and they were growing at a much different rate.
It was clear to me that I was useless.
In the end, it all went wrong.
So I reported to the guild official that I had no useful skills and was considered "unsuitable" for all the professions (classes).
I couldn't learn any useful skills. Then you're going to die in the wild even if you become an adventurer. Just quit and go back to the mountains. Or do you want me to find you another job?
Of course, the guild leader told me to give up being an adventurer.
Being an adventurer is a dangerous job.
I know that.
What the uncle said made a lot of sense to me.
But I couldn't give up.
So I left the city without saying a word.
I have no talent.
I really don't have any talent.
That much is clear.
But then...
I had an idea.
If I don't have any talent, why don't I just work harder and train harder?
That thought crossed my mind.
I just couldn't give up.
Because the training instructor of the Swordsman had told me one time that if you train a skill you have acquired for a very long time, you can acquire a new skill, though it is very rare... .
That's it, that's it. I clung to those words.
Those words were my last hope.
Maybe it was too short a time for me to find out.
Maybe with more training, I could.
I'm sure I can develop good skills and become an adventurer.
Well then, I'll train.
When I get back to the mountains, I'll train myself thoroughly.
And so, still wanting to be a swordsman, I went home, made a makeshift wooden sword, and began training to beat the wooden sticks hanging from the trees around my house with a rope.
Just keep playing.
Just play by hitting a wooden stick swinging in the air with a wooden sword.
That's all there is to it.
"Parii.
The only swordsmanship skill I've acquired in the training school for swordsmen is the lowest level skill that no one needs.
I'm not sure if you've ever heard of this, but it's a great idea.
I'm not a fan.
And so, one year later.
"Parry.
I could finally play ten sticks at once in one breath.
I can see the growth in myself.
But I still haven't figured out my next skill.
I don't know when I'll be able to figure out my next skill.
But I'm sure it will.
If I keep working at it.
I might be able to learn a new skill and become a full-fledged adventurer.
That's where my adventure begins.
That thought makes my heart pound.
I was looking forward to every day with hope for the future.
I've been looking forward to every day.
Three years have passed since then.
Except for the time I spent working in the fields and hunting, I continued to train from morning until night, until I fell asleep exhausted.
I had long ago replaced the wooden sticks I hung with wooden swords of my own making.
I thought it would be better for practice.
So, I just played.
I played the countless wooden swords in the air and trained myself. And so on.
And then...
"Parry.
Now I can even play a hundred wooden swords in one breath.
I can even do it with my eyes closed.
But there's still no sign of the next skill.
I guess I still need more training...
I think I've gotten a little stronger, but the last time I went down a mountain, I was taught that skill is everything in this world.
And still, I haven't picked up any skills since then.
As it is, I'm not even at the level of a novice adventurer.
At this rate, I'll never be able to go on an adventure.
You'll be able to get a lot more information on the web.
I'm sure you'll agree.
Then another ten years passed.
I continued to train hard, not missing a day.
The number of wooden swords flying in the air increases every day, and I haven't counted them since a few years ago, when the number exceeded one thousand.
Anyway, I play them.
I've been training myself to play the wooden swords hanging in the air.
That's all I've been doing, mindlessly and repeatedly.
"Parry.
Now I can even play a thousand wooden swords without wielding a sword.
But there's still no sign of the next skill.
"I wonder how much training all the swordsmen in the world have...
I can't even imagine it anymore.
I can't even imagine what it's like to be an adventurer.
I don't have a shred of talent. I know that.
That's why I've come this far with the intention of making up for it, but... I've finally begun to feel my limitations.
I'm twenty-seven.
I'm not getting any younger.
I was told that I should acquire skills to become an adventurer, but I haven't acquired a single skill since then.
It seems that no matter how hard I try, the skills required to be a normal adventurer are out of reach.
But I have a dream.
But I have a dream... to be an adventurer and see the whole wide world...
"...... reckless dream, huh?
I thought I knew that.
Maybe it's time for me to find a different way of life.
Still, I couldn't give up...
I went down the mountain again and knocked on the door of the Adventurer's Guild in the royal capital.